onlinefixation: Second Life Snapshots

Part of our MMS198 (Gaming in Education) course requirement is to play and familiarize ourselves in Virtual Worlds, and the prof has chosen the game Second Life. But we're not gonna just play the game. As multimedia studies students, we are gonna apply the proper composition in photography inside this virtual world. Pretty interesting and clever, I say, since there is another subject that tackles photography. We had our first taste of proper composition without even using a real camera! The professor gave the following links about composition in photography, which will form the basis of our snapshots.

http://digital-photography-school.com/5-elements-of-composition-in-photography

http://digital-photography-school.com/5-more-elements-of-composition-in-photography

Below are the snapshots in Second Life. Click on the image to view the larger version.

Autumn
Beautiful country house with fields of flower. The calming colors of autumn is more apparent by the setting sun. The house, being the main point of interest, is shot off-centered. The tree to the left, with its contrasting red autumn leaves, provided another point of interest, making the overall image balanced. The perspective was just a bit higher than the flower fields, adding another calming effect. The openness of the cloudless sky signifies serenity, and the space above added to the overall calmness of this snapshot.

Torii
This may look like a reflection of a Torii in the water, but its actually an underwater shot. Having a different perspective (shooting upwards) can make the object in focus appear bigger. The underwater shot caused for aberration of the image, giving an interesting texture to it. The red color of the torii contrasted with the blue sky background.

Book
A tree stump in someones backyard, converted into a table. The colors of the trunk (including the book) and the yellowish leaves on the ground are complementary to each other. The texture and pattern of the leaves on the ground made an interesting complement to the tree trunk. The main object in focus is shot off-centered, and the light (yes, although it looks like coffee, its actually a candle on a cup) illuminated the leaves and accentuated the focus to the main object. The shadows fill the space beyond the object, which was shot from the top. This perspective ensures that the light and shadow will be circular, thus helping accentuate the focus to the trunk.

Moonshot

In Second Life, you have the option to change the time of day. Good thing that the moon is always present when you choose midnight. This is symmetrical shot of the moon against the blackness of the sky, and the presence of birds (doves) flying upwards reduced the overall eerie feeling. The color is dark and gloomy, and the upward perspective also caught the flying birds in the area. Its a bit hard to get this shot, since the birds are spawning randomly all over the place. I should have zoomed in to make the moon appear large, but there seems to be a limit on how much you can zoom.

Room
A bug in the game trapped me inside of this locked house. Good thing that you can always teleport to somewhere else . Of course, I'm not leaving without a snapshot of the room. There is symmetry in this snapshot, with the closet in the center and the bed on each side, giving overall balance. The lines on the floor planks are pointed towards the main objects of interest, and the pinkish color of the room is pleasing to the eyes as well.